more mobility, better communications and a variety of other technical aids. Creation of the Roving Tactical Force has helped to hold down street crimes. Concentrated efforts, assisted by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Office of Economic Opportunity, have succeeded in reducing the number of juvenile crimes for the year ending last July 1 below the previous year for the first time in many years. Finally, the Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia which I appointed has provided a program for the coordinated attack on crime that we so badly needed. Nevertheless, we must do more. As you correctly point out, it will be expensive, both for the short-range measures and for the longer-range progress on which our ultimate success depends. My budget message to the Congress of January 25 indicates the magnitude of those costs, and includes my recommendations for an increase in the Federal payment, as you suggest. As soon as funds are available, some things can be done. For example, I propose a further increase in police salaries to expedite the efforts of the police to secure their full quota of men, and to get even better men in the process. We can provide additional civilians to man new police facilities and to relieve police from clerical and other civiliantype duties. We can complete the program of expansion and modernization of the police communication system. We can further increase police mobility with additional automobiles. In addition, my budget message proposes major increases in funds for other programs, both in areas such as education where improvements are essential to any ultimate success, and in projects that have an immediate impact. The message recommends an increase in the number of Roving Lead ers to work with youth gangs and delinquency-prone juveniles. It proposes additional staff for the Juvenile Court, and general strengthening of court services. The budget also includes funds to provide the physical facilities that the District police and correctional agencies so badly need. Planning funds are included for a modern detention and diagnostic facilities to replace the antiquated D.C. Jail and the inadequate and overcrowded Receiving Home. Construction funds are included to build a new police training facility at Blue Plains. In some areas, legislation is necessary. I am preparing and will shortly transmit to the Congress my recommendations for a number of changes in criminal law and criminal procedure that will strengthen both the police and the general administration of criminal justice in the District. I am also expecting to have recommendations from the District Judicial Council on the needs of the courts, which are critical. They will be the basis for further legislative proposals in that area. Those improvements that can be made. without either appropriations or legislation are being made. Immediately following the first series of recommendations by the D.C. Crime Commission regarding the Police Department, the Commissioners and the Department took action. I have made it clear that I expect action on these recommendations, and on similar recommendations now available from the Commission regarding other parts of the District government, to be a matter of the highest priority. One essential element cannot be supplied by government-the cooperation of the community, with the police and in support of the appropriations and other measures which are necessary for an effective anti-crime program. I shall be counting on the support of the Clearing House Association, and I hope that your example will rally others to the same position you have taken. Sincerely, LYNDON B. JOHNSON [Mr. Robert C. Baker, Chairman, The Washington, D.C., Clearing House Association, 613 15th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005] NOTE: A full page advertisement, containing a facsimile reproduction of the letter to the President from the Washington Clearing House Association, dated January 25, 1967, was published in Washington newspapers on January 31. For the President's message to Congress on January 25 transmitting the District of Columbia budget, see Item 15. For a statement by the President in response to the report of the President's Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia, see 1966 volume, this series, Book II, Item 656. The President's special message on crime was transmitted to Congress on February 6, 1967 (see Items 35, 36). 28 Remarks Upon Accepting a Portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. January 31, 1967 Mrs. James Halsted, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., John Roosevelt, Madame Shoumatoff, members of the Roosevelt family, and friends of President Roosevelt: The Presidency is a hazardous duty joband I have learned recently that danger can lurk in unsuspected places: portrait-unveilings, for example. But I am glad to join all of you for this one. Because it gives me an opportunity to speak not as a judge of painting, but as a judge of men. I was a proud friend and follower of President Franklin Roosevelt. For me, and for millions of others, any likeness of this man is an inspiration. His face and his voice became symbols, in that other time of testing, of man's power to overcome. President Roosevelt overcame a sheltered and privileged background to become a friend of the simple and the poor and the forgotten. He overcame great personal tragedy and great pain-which was with him all the time-to become a living example of zest, courage, bravery, and vitality. And he was even much more than all of these. President Roosevelt was a political leader of the first rank, whose political skill led his countrymen to recovery from depression and to victory in war. As Mrs. Johnson was speaking, I was looking over this group. I saw a distinguished and colorful face of a man who is now a Member of the House of Representatives, who was formerly on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At one period, in the darkest days just prior to World War II, I think his was the only voice on that committee that spoke the thoughts of President Roosevelt. But he spoke them eloquently and he spoke them. courageously, even though alone. His name wasn't called, but I want him to stand, tooClaude Pepper of Florida. I was a new congressional secretary in March 1933 when President Roosevelt mounted the platform and that day quoted from Proverbs: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." The people he spoke to then believed that their nation had come to a dead end. One out of every four Americans in that period was without work, with no job. A few months before, the bonus marchers had been chased away from Pennsylvania Avenue to the Anacostia flats. President Roosevelt gave them hope-and he also gave them progress. He knew that leadership requires not only vision but the skill to move men and to build institutions. And like every one of our great Presidents, President Roosevelt was a great politician. He proved again and again that politics-scorned by so manyis an honorable calling. For his efforts, he won the admiration of most men. But he suffered the abuse of many. Ever since his day, his successors have found encouragement in remembering how many doubters plagued "that man in the White House." He endured them cheerfully for more years than any other President has ever spent in this house. "One day," President Roosevelt said, "a generation may possess this land, blessed beyond anything we now know; blessed with those things, material and spiritual, that make a man's life more abundant." Well, we are richer in those things now than we were in his day. But we have not stopped working. This painting will-as long as I am President-hang in my office where I can see it and where I need it. I hope that all who view it there will see in it eternal evidence that times of trial can bring out the best in men-and can bring out the best in nations. This is somewhat of a homecoming for me. If I may, I am going to take off early this afternoon and visit with all of you, too many names to call, but all to whom President Roosevelt meant as much as he did to us. Mrs. Johnson and I are so glad that you could come and be here with us on this occasion. We do so much thank you, Madame, because this is a portrait that I like. NOTE: The President spoke at 4:50 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Anna Roosevelt Halsted, daughter of the late President, to his sons Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. and John A. Roosevelt, and to Madame Elizabeth Shoumatoff, the artist who painted the portrait. See also Item 21. 29 Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker Proposing To Add the San Rafael Wilderness, California, to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Dear Mr. President: (Dear Mr. Speaker:) On September 3, 1964, I signed a milestone bill in the history of conservation: the Wilderness Act. This Act incorporated 54 National Forest areas into the new National Wilderness Preservation System. It preserved for all time more than nine million acres in their original and unspoiled beauty. That legislation also called upon the President to make recommendations for the inclusion of certain additional areas within the Wilderness System in the future. Today, I am pleased to recommend the first such addition-the San Rafael Wilderness, Los February 1, 1967 Padres National Forest, in California. In my special message earlier this week on Protecting our Natural Heritage, I said that, as a Nation, we must "preserve what remains of the natural beauty and tranquility that was here long before man came. We must create new occasions for people to encounter that beauty, and to experience the re-creation of the heart that occurs in the natural universe." The bill I am transmitting today is designed to meet this test. The proposed San Rafael Wilderness is highly suitable for inclusion in the Wilderness System. It con tains significant wilderness resources which will become increasingly valuable with each passing year. But, more important, it is a wooded and mountainous area of nearly 143,000 acres near Santa Barbara, California-located within a two-hour drive of six million people-which offers a wide variety of recreation: camping, riding, hiking, and fishing, among others. If we preserve it now, it will be a source of pleasure and relaxation for millions of Americans yet unborn. In support of this bill, I am also transmitting a letter and report from Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman recommending the establishment of this Wilder ness area. This is only a beginning. We must-and will-do more. We must continue to move forward toward seeing to it that every city dweller especially those imprisoned by the bleakness and blight of the slums-has ready access to parks, playgrounds, and the untarnished beauty of nature's landscape. Un limited horizons, green trees, blue lakes, fresh streams and cool forests-what could be more important to the heart and spirit of the American people, their children and their children's children? In the coming months, I will make more recommendations to the Congress for the inclusion of additional areas in the Wilderness system. I urge that the Congress give early and favorable approval to this important conservation measure. Sincerely, LYNDON B. JOHNSON NOTE: This is the text of identical letters addressed to the Honorable Hubert H. Humphrey, President of the Senate, and to the Honorable John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House of Representatives. The letter and report from Secretary Freeman, to which the President referred, are printed in House Document 50 (90th Cong., 1st sess.). For remarks of the President upon signing the Wilderness Act, see 1963-64 volume, this series, Book II, Item 554. The bill adding the San Rafael Wilderness to the National Wilderness Preservation System was not enacted during the first session of the 90th Congress. 30 Remarks at a Ceremony Marking the Effective Date of the Increase in Minimum Wages. February 1, 1967 Mr. Keenan, Secretary Wirtz, General O'Brien, the distinguished Chairman and Members of the House committee who worked so long and effectively to bring about passage of these amendments, my friend Senator Yarborough, members of the AFL-CIO, ladies and gentlemen: To me this is another D-day in our fight to help those that are in need. Twenty-eight years ago, as a young congressman, I worked to get the first minimum wage law passed. I was brought into that effort by Mr. David Dubinsky, who is represented here today, and by other members of the AFL-CIO. The thing that I particularly want to mention is then, as now, most of the enlightened members of organized labor have never been personally affected by the minimum wage laws. As a result of their bargaining, they have all, generally speaking, been above the minimum levels. But union after union and leader after leader in the workers' movement in this country have spent time to see that their colleagues and their fellow workers had the benefits of this legislation. It is my humble pride as President to see that this declaration of decency has been. made real in millions of lives and homes— for as we meet here this afternoon, a new minimum wage has become effective in this country. It will mean a great deal to a great many people-none of whom are here. It will help them to carry on. Eight million workers, as Mr. Keenan has told you, have new benefits this afternoonfor the first time since the act was passed 28 years ago. One million more workers are going to get benefits next year. The minimum rate for most workers-those 30 million previously covered-becomes, today, $1.40 an hour. This still means less, for a year's work, than what we count as a poverty wage. But this brings minimum wages closer in line with minimum decencies than they have ever been before. An additional billion dollars will go, this year, into those pay envelopes where it is needed most-and this will be for services rendered, for work performed. If this means very small increases in prices-that we have heard a good deal about-and in costs-and I believe it does mean increases in both-the American people will accept this as a better answer than denying human beings a decent wage. These are the workers that you rarely see, the workers that we all too often forget to acknowledge. They are the workers that make life a little more complete for everyone of us, every day. They are the charwomen who clean our rooms after we are gone in the evening, through the night. They are the people who make our beds after we leave in the morning. They are the waitresses who get up early to give us coffee before we go to work, the hotel and the motel employees, the hospital service employees, the laundry workers that clean our clothes, the workers in the apparel trades that try to make us look presentable. And, for the first time, the farmworkers-several hundred thousand of them. They are not here in the White House this afternoon, but those who have worked for them and fought for them are-the Members of Congress who could hear their voices and heeded their plea, the leaders of the workers in this country who had done much to help the people of their own union, but decided to do something to help all people. This is a great day for America. America is entitled to the feeling that it has done. something very right and something very good. I shall never forget a breakfast I had at a very dark period in the life of this bill over in the Mansion several months ago when Mr. George Meany and Mr. David Dubinsky and several of us were talking about the problems we faced. Well, those hurdles have been overcome. What was a hope yesterday is now today a reality-and some 9 million will benefit from it. Just knowing that gives you a great deal of satisfaction that can never come to you from any paycheck. So to you leaders of labor, particularly Secretary Wirtz who testified so long and so eloquently and so effectively, to you Members who heard him, all of you, in behalf of these workers, I say thank you for your efforts. NOTE: The President spoke at 3 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Joseph D. Keenan, international secretary, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, W. Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor, Lawrence F. O'Brien, Postmaster General, Representative Carl D. Perkins of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and Senator Ralph Yarborough of Texas. Later he referred to George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, and David Dubinsky, president emeritus of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, both members of the Executive Council, AFL-CIO. |